Orkney Marine Planning Update

Winter 2022/23

IMAGE: The newsletter header identifies “Orkney Marine Planning Update” and “Winter 2022/23”, with Development & Marine Planning and Orkney Islands Council branding.

Introduction

It is hard to believe that a year has gone by since our last winter update; we hope it has been a better year for you all.

Since our Summer 2022 edition, Orkney Islands Council’s marine team have been working mainly on the draft Orkney Islands Regional Marine Plan (‘the Plan’) and its associated documents, as outlined in the last update. In relation to this, please help us by responding to the two quick questions below.

Are these updates useful for you?

These marine planning updates now go out to over 350 individuals/organisations. To help us make the best use of your and our time, we just want to check that you are still finding them interesting/useful and if there is any way that we can improve them.

Please take a minute to reply to two questions below at the marine.planning@orkney.gov.uk email address, with the heading “Q RESPONSES”.

All responses will be kept anonymous and only used to inform the marine plan-making process and its associated documents.

Q 1. Have these updates helped you have a better understanding of the Orkney Islands Regional Marine Plan making process?

• Yes - go to Q2
• No - go to Q3

Q 2. What aspects do you find most useful:

1. updates on the marine plan-making progress;
2. updates on engagement activities;
3. updates on wider marine planning issues around Orkney;
4. all of the above?

Q3. What can we do to make these updates more useful? E.g. less often, more photos.

Major milestone reached

We are pleased to announce that the Orkney Islands Regional Marine Plan: Consultation Draft has gone into the OIC committee process for endorsement, having passed the first stage with flying colours on 8th Nov 2022. This is the first step in seeking approval, which will then be followed by endorsement by the General Meeting of the Council in December. It will then be updated in light of new national policy (National Planning Framework 4), just published by Scottish Ministers, also on 8th Nov, before being sent onto Marine Scotland, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, for approval to publicly consult on the draft Plan next summer.

Orkney Marine Planning Advisory Group webpage

Throughout the plan making process, the Orkney Marine Planning Advisory Group (OMPAG) have provided expert input to help draft the objectives, supporting text and policies of the draft Plan. The approved minutes of the previous meetings can be found on the dedicated webpage: Marine Planning Advisory Group (orkney.gov.uk).

Outwith these meetings, individual sectors within OMPAG have been consulted as required, as well as numerous sub-group meetings. Thanks to everyone that contributed to the drafting of the Plan.

Sea-Changers grants available

Sea-Changers is giving one-off grants (i.e. not continual funding) to UK-based charities and not-for-profit organisations, including schools, carrying out marine conservation activities. They welcome applications from a variety of groups and entities, with a range if grants available. The Main Grants programme runs twice a year with grants between £500 – £2,500 available, whilst the Small Grants programme is open year-round and can give up to £500. Details can be found here: www.sea-changers.org.uk

National Marine Plan 2

On 27 Oct 2022, Marine Scotland officially commenced the development of the new National Marine Plan. The first National Marine Plan was published in 2015.

Alongside this announcement, Marine Scotland published its Stakeholder Engagement Strategy and Statement of Public Participation to guide the engagement with stakeholders during the national marine planning process. They are seeking views on how to support the development of the National Marine Plan 2 (NMP2).

Marine Scotland also have a survey to capture views on how to support the development of NMP2: National Marine Plan - stakeholder survey - Scottish Government - Citizen Space (consult.gov.scot)

If you want to find out more, you can contact the NMP2 team directly at: nationalmarineplanning@gov.scot

West of Orkney Windfarm

Offshore Wind Power Limited intend to submit applications for marine licences from Marine Scotland for the construction of the offshore windfarm and associated transmission infrastructure. The proposed West of Orkney Windfarm will have the potential to generate around 2GW of renewable energy and is located approximately 30km west of Orkney and 25km from the north coast of Scotland.

Offshore Wind Power Limited will be holding a series of public consultation events under the Pre-Application Consultation regulations to inform stakeholders about the project and allow them to make comments to Offshore Wind Power Limited. Details about the public events can be found on their website (https://www.westoforkney.com/), and an outline of the details are provided below. Please note this is not an OIC project, so any queries must be directed to the developer.

IMAGE: The plan identifies the location of the proposed West of Orkney Windfarm and associated transmission infrastructure. The map is labelled “West of Orkney Windfarm” and marks the windfarm, “Private Wire” to Orkney, “Grid Connection” to the mainland, “Scapa Deep Water Quay Construction port”, “Flotta Hydrogen Hub Orkney”, “Scrabster Harbour O&M port”, and “Substation at or near Spittal”. It shows Orkney, Sutherland and Caithness, with a scale marked in kilometres and the text “WGS 1984 UTM Zone 30N”. The image also states: “Offshore Wind Power Limited is holding a series of pre-application public consultation (PAC) events which will provide an opportunity for stakeholders, including local residents, to hear more about the Project and make comments on the proposals. Members of the Project team will be available to answer questions. The details of the events are as follows:”

New newsletter sign-up form

We have recently launched a webpage to allow new stakeholders and interested parties to subscribe to this newsletter themselves. This can be done at https://www.orkney.gov.uk/Service-Directory/D/subscribe.htm. As always, please feel free to pass this newsletter on to anybody who might be interested.

Contact us

If you have any queries, please contact us on the email address below.

Email Address: Marine.planning@orkney.gov.uk

Website: https://www.orkney.gov.uk/Service-Directory/D/marine-planning.htm

Wishing you all a happy and healthy Christmas and best wishes for 2023.

OIC Marine Planning Team